Wizz Air, Ryanair and British Airways have all strongly rejected the findings of a Which? Customer service survey.
The Hungarian budget carrier was ranked as the poorest performing overall, with a net satisfaction score of +13, well below the sector average of +52.
Ryanair also scored poorly, with a satisfaction score of +28, followed by British Airways with a score of +46.
At the other end of the table, Jet2.com was the highest scoring airline with a customer satisfaction score of +81.
The consumer champion said it received more than 1,000 responses for the airline industry, and assessed how airlines are performing across eight different areas of customer service, such as how easy it is to find a contact number, how long it takes to get in touch with a person who can help and how well issues are dealt with.
More than half (57%) of people surveyed who had contacted Wizz Air reported experiencing at least one problem with their customer services, compared to two in five (41%) across the airline industry overall, according to Which?
Of those who reported an issue in their customer service dealings with Wizz Air, around four in ten (44%) reported long delays in receiving a response to their email, and the same number (44%) also reported speaking to unhelpful or dismissive advisors.
A third (31%) of those who had problems said they waited a long time on the phone before speaking to an advisor, and a significant number did not manage to get through at all.
A fifth (21%) said they could not reach customer services despite continuous attempts, the same number (21%) never received a response to their email. Around one in ten (13%) had their call disconnected after spending a long time in the queue.
However, Wizz Air UK managing director Marion Geoffroy led criticism of the findings, describing them as “inaccurate, unrepresentative and misleading”.
She said: “Which? only surveyed 68 Wizz Air customers, which is less that 0.001% of our UK customer base of 12.3 million passengers.
“It is unclear to us how Which? can claim its survey is nationally representative when only 1.66% of their respondents said they had contacted Wizz Air’s customer service team.
“We are serious about constantly improving and providing great customer service. We made a public commitment to our customers in 2023 to improve Wizz Air’s operations and set ourselves clear targets. Since then, we have invested more than £90 million and are proud of the results to date, which are among the strongest in the entire industry.
“When it comes to operational performance, Wizz Air’s completion rate in the UK is 99.5%, a 2.1% improvement on last year. In the first half of this year, despite a challenging operational environment, only 1.8% of UK flights were delayed for more than three hours, representing a 50% reduction compared to last year. In April and May this year, Wizz Air had the highest completion rate in Europe.
“With regard to customer service, the improvements are equally clear to see. Following disruption, customers will on average receive any compensation payment three times faster than 2022-2023, with the majority settled within 25 days. The share of customer claims answered within five days is five times better than it was three years ago, reaching 84.1% of customers today. For customer calls, the number of those calls answered within 35 seconds rose by 26% in the same period.
“While we appreciate that there is always room for improvement – something the airline is wholeheartedly committed to – this data clearly shows that Wizz Air is doing a significantly better job than the erroneous Which? report suggests.
“We are disappointed that Which? is wrongly pointing the finger at Wizz Air once again and will continue to try to engage with the organisation to highlight the points raised in this response.”
A Ryanair spokesperson said: “This is another fake Which? survey using a tiny sample of just 600 claimed ‘passengers’ – only 130 of which claimed to be Ryanair passengers – which produces more fake news for Which?.
“This year almost 200 million passengers will choose to fly Ryanair for our lower fares and great care.
“None of them take any notice of these fake surveys which are routinely pumped out by Which? to drum up some cheap PR. This fake survey of just 600 “claimed” passengers is just more fake news from Which?.”
A BA spokesperson said: “It’s disappointing that this survey, which is not a representative or credible sample of our customers, is being presented as such.
“Our teams work around the clock to support our customers, and over the last few years we’ve introduced additional customer representatives and invested in new systems to improve their experience.”
Responding to the airlines’ criticism, Which? policy and advocacy director Rocio Concha said: “As the UK’s consumer champion, Which?’s research is always fair, robust and impartial.
“While our survey identified customer service issues across the airline industry, Wizz Air stood out for its lamentably poor performance, and Ryanair and British Airways also scored below the sector average.
“It is disappointing to see airlines be so dismissive of their customers’ feedback, pointing fingers elsewhere rather than taking passengers’ complaints on board.”